“It automates our reporting out of ConnectWise and lets us leverage the accounting functions inside the PSA system. With Datagate, we get a single pane of glass,” he says.
In-Telecom uses Datagate to bill all recurring charges. These include services on its VoIP platform, SIP trunking, hardware and infrastructure as a service, managed services, contracts, phone services and security maintenance contracts.
In-Telecom needed a centralized telecom billing software that would integrate tightly with existing systems, including its QuickBooks accounting system.
“We liked the Datagate interface, we liked the information they gave us, we liked the company. The supported integration from ConnectWise made it even more of a no-brainer,” says Jimmy Burns.
“It was very simple to make the connection with ConnectWise. The Datagate team were great.”
In-Telecom syncs to CCH SureTax, ensuring that bills are geo-coded correctly. Tax, compliance and regulatory fees for each account are based on the service address. In-Telecom can service any state.
“The SureTax/Datagate tie-in is very clean,” Jimmy Burns says.
In-Telecom uses Datagate partner GSA for strategic tax consulting and filing services. GSA is ‘doing great work’, says Jimmy Burns.
“GSA has taught us how to be more profitable. We’ve never had that before,” he says.
In-Telecom’s Shawn Torres (left) and Jimmy Burns (right) with Datagate CEO Mark Loveys at the ITEXPO conference in February 2020
Centralized telecom billing saves time
In-Telecom used to have to make manual calculations for pro-rata bills, something Datagate does automatically. The company used to key information manually into the accounting system because it wasn’t integrated with the PSA system. The integration between Datagate, ConnectWise and the accounting system saves a huge amount of time, Jimmy Burns says.
“We’ve saved countless hours being able to do a direct synch over from ConnectWise Agreements to Datagate. Once that’s generated, we can kick everything back over to ConnectWise and kick over to our accounting system. At a minimum we save two full days of manual work each month.”
When In-Telecom generates ConnectWise service tickets it converts line items to Agreements. Datagate extracts the data from ConnectWise Agreements, including customer contact details, part numbers and customer billing preferences. Now when In-Telecom bills, it logs into Datagate and simply generates the invoices.
“We used to manually key all that in. It took at least a full day each month and errors were possible. We’re saving a ton of time and we know all the data is accurate,” Jimmy Burns says.
A synch between Datagate and ConnectWise runs multiple times per day. When In-Telecom builds out a new part number or a new product set, the new information is automatically made available in Datagate.
“Procurement has been a big winner for us. We select a new product or service as a ConnectWise Agreement service type and it’s available in Datagate within a couple of hours,” says Jimmy Burns.
Jimmy Burns describes Datagate support as ‘great, very quick’.
“The same person – Lee Dubber – who implemented us, helps support us and she’s been fantastic. Everything we’ve requested has either already been on the books with the Datagate engineers, or typically within one billing cycle they’ve revved it out and we’re able to take advantage of the new enhanced functions.
“I recommend Datagate – in fact I have recommended it to multiple companies already. I’ve made more progress with Datagate in four months than I did in two and a half years with our previous service provider. At In-Telecom we listen to our own customers to know what they need and want. Datagate does the same, so for me that’s very relatable.”
